Pentair Residential Filtration Announces New Additions

Pentair Residential Filtration (PRF), a div. of industrial manufacturer Pentair Inc., announced appointments to its sales and marketing teams.

Sam Karge has been promoted to vice president of global marketing--where he will continue to lead the expanding global marketing team for PRF--to drive the growth strategy focused on operational excellence, retail, point-of-use and fast growth markets. In addition to his role at Pentair Residential Filtration, Karge serves on the Board of Governors for the Water Quality Assn. (WQA) and leads the Government Relations Committee and a number of Green Technology task forces at WQA. Since 1996, Karge held a number of different roles with the residential businesses at the current Pentair Residential Filtration Glendale facility in the areas of communications, product development, and strategic initiatives.

In 2006 Karge was promoted to the director of sales and marketing for the GE Residential & Commercial (GE) group businesses. Since the Pentair/GE joint venture in 2008, Sam has held the global director of marketing role, working closely with the North American and international marketing teams to build a strong global-function marketing team.

“Today’s marketplace is truly global--without boundaries,” Karge said. “As the technology leader in the industry we must continue to offer innovative, sustainable solutions for the world’s water problems. Keeping a pulse on the market and working with our partners to deliver these solutions is my main objective.”

Karge will be working closely with Gerard McKeown, who has been promoted to vice president of sales. McKeown will continue to lead the North, South and Central American sales teams for Pentair Residential Filtration to drive PRF’s sales in the fast growth markets and the overall global growth strategy. McKeown has been with Pentair Residential Filtration since June 2007. He started as director of sales for Pentair Water Treatment and the Fleck control valve business and continued in this capacity through the 2008 Pentair and GE joint venture. McKeown brings 20 years of experience in the manufacturing industry, primarily focused on water in residential, commercial and industrial applications to this new appointment.

PRF also announced the addition of Paul Devine as North America marketing manager. Devine’s focus will be on marketing channel management and communications for the business. His primary focus will be on North America while providing a window of support to all of Pentair Residential Filtration as the business continues to expand globally. Prior to joining PRF, Paul spent time in the motorcycle industry, holding leadership positions at both Harley-Davidson Motor Co. and SuckerPunch Sallys.